Reinforced hollow structural panel or door



Jan. 16, 1951 J..ROSENHAGEN REINFORCED HOLLOW STRUCTURAL PANEL OR DOOR Inventor Filed Aug. 30, 1948 Fig.

Patented Jan. 16, 1951 REINFORCED HOLLOW STRUCTURAL PANEL OR; DOOR John Rosenhagen, St. Albans, N. Y.

Application August 30, 1948, Serial No. 46,768

This invention relates to a reinforced hollow structural panel or door and has for its primary object to facilitate the rapid and economical production of structural panels or doors and at the same time preserve the insulation and soundproofing value of such elements.

Hollow structural panels or doors of the type to which this invention relates are generally comprised of a frame formed from straight bars which are joined at their ends and lie along the perimeter of the panel or door as the case may be. The complete unit includes such a frame supporting on opposite sides platesforming between them and within the confines of the frame a relatively shallow chamber, Owing to the economies demanded in modern day construction, the plates which are attached to the frame are made relatively thin with the result that they in themselves are structurally weak so that pressure exerted on one or the other side of the door or panel frequently causes rupture of the plate against which pressure is exerted. In order to overcome this diificulty the prior art has resorted to introducing fillers within the chamber formed between the plates and within the confines of the frame, which fillers extend for the full depth of the chamber and bear against the inner faces of the plates, so that pressure exerted on the exterior of one plate will be transmitted through the filler to the plate on the opposite side of the panel or door, and hence the strength of the panel or door is materially enhanced.

A further object of the present invention is to avoid the necessity of building reinforcing grids of the type exemplified in the prior art, and at the same time effect the required reinforcement of the plates carried by the frame.

The above and other objects may be attained by employing this invention which embodies among its features a frame, plates secured to opposite sides of the frame to form a closed shallow chamber within the frame and a multiplicity of rings of substantially incompressible fibrous material within the chamber.

Other features include so positioning the rings that the spaces between adjacent rings and between the rings and the frame are less than the diameter of a ring, and each ring having a diameter greater than its length, and a length;

sufficient to contact opposite panels.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side view of a structural panel or door embodying the features of this invention, showing a portion of the near plate broken away clearly to show the reinforcing rings in place therein,

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially along the line 2-2 of Figure 1, and

Figure 3 is a perspective view of one of the reinforcing and filling rings,

2 Claims. (01. 2091) 2 Referring to the drawings in' detail the panel or door designated generally I!) is constructed in a conventional manner by forming a frame 12 and attaching to opposite sides of the frame thickness of the frame [2. In cupboard doors of the type commonly employed in kitchen cupboards where the overall thickness of the door is three-quarters of an inch, the thickness of the frame l2 will be three-eighths of an inch, and the thickness of each plate [A will be threesixteenths of an inch. It will thus be seen that the depth of the chamber it will equal in a conventional door of the type above referred to substantially three-eighths of an inch and that the depth of the chamber I6 is dependent solely upon the thickness of the frame l2. Doors of the type above described are common and well known in the art, and as is evidenced by certain examples disclosed in prior patents, the use of reinforcing fillers between the plates has been resorted to, in order to accomplish various purposes such as thermal and sound insulation, and also for the purpose of reinforcing the door or panel to some degree. Prior examples however generally call for a relatively soft compressible fibrous filler which can be easily deformed under external pressure on a plate, so that the full resistance of the opposite plate has frequently been lost.

My invention embodies filling the chamber l6 with a multiplicity of rings [8 of substantially incompressible fibrous material which will serve to definitely transmit pressure exerted on the ex-' terior of one plate M on the plate It on the opposite side of the frame [2. As illustrated in Figure 2, the rings !8 are of a length substantially equal to the depth of the chamber l6, and

as illustrated in Figure 3 the rings are preferably of a diameter substantially greater than their length so that when they are placed in the chamber l6 as suggested in Figure 1, the spaces between adjacent rings and between the rings and the frame will never exceed the diameter of adhesive on the plates or rings or both will cause v the rings to be cemented firmly in place within the chamber [6. Owing to the fact that the rings are of a hard fibrous material and in the preferred form of the invention the plates are formed of plywood, it will be evident that the rings and plates will expand and contract to substantially the same degree with changes in weather conditions, so that any danger of the parts pulling loose from one another will be avoided.

In assembling a structural panel or door in accordance with this invention, one of the plates [4 is first glued or otherwise fixed to the preformed frame [2 on one side thereof after which the rings [8 are placed in the chamber [6 as suggested in the drawings and the second plate is then applied completely to enclose the rings within the chamber l6. In the preferred form of the invention the inner faces of the plates are covered with a suitable adhesive so that when they are pressed against the frame and contact the ends of the rings the adhesive will firmly secure the plates to the frame and the rings in place within the chamber.

While in the foregoing there has been shown and described the preferred embodiment of this invention it is to be understood that minor changes in the details of construction, combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. A reinforced hollow structural panel comprising an open frame, parallel plates secured to opposite sides of the frame to form a closed shallow chamber within the frame, a multiplicity of ring members packed in the chamber to contact each other, the frame, and the plates, the axes of the members being perpendicular to the plates, each of said members comprising a pair of concentric cylindrical elements, each of the elements being provided with an inclined slot throughout the axial length thereof, the elements of each pair being arranged to circumferentially space the slots from each other with respect to the ring members, whereby the ring members are substantially incompressible axially while being relatively compressible radially.

2. A reinforced hollow structural panel comprising an open frame, parallel plates secured to opposite sides of the frame to form a closed shallow chamber within the frame, a multiplicity of ring members packed in the chamber to con tact each other, the frame, and the plates, the axes of the members being perpendicular to the plates, means rigidly securing the opposite ends of the ring members to the plates, each of said members comprising a pair of concentric cylindrical elements, each of the elements being provided with an inclined slot throughout the axial length thereof, the elements of each pair being arranged to circumferentially space the slots from each other with respect to the ring members, whereby the ring members are substantially incompressible axially while being relatively compressible radially.

JOHN ROSENHAGEN.

REFERENCES CITED FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain July 29, 1941 Number 

